The Board of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools gave notice Thursday to two Georgia Colleges. The SACS board accredits schools and found issues with Brewton Parker College in Mount Vernon and with Paine College in Augusta.

SACS President Belle Wheelan said both schools were up for accreditation for another 10 years, but they only got accreditation for another 12 months.

Paine College, a historically black liberal arts college, was placed on warning. Wheeler says the board found the school failed to comply with standards regarding the college’s federal financial aid programs. Paine College was also out of compliance with the standards regarding control of sponsored research and external funds, control of finances, financial stability and failure to comply with standards for qualified administrative and academic officers.

In April, Paine lost eligibility to one federal loan program for students after not properly accounting for the funds. More than 90 percent of students at the 130 year-old private school rely on federal aid.

SACS put Brewton Parker College on probation, a more serious level than on warning. Wheelan says the board found the Baptist college failed to comply with standards for financial stability, for having adequate full-time faculty, for control of finances, as well as standards regarding federal financial aid programs. She says Brewton Parker also had issues with faculty competence because some teachers were not qualified in the subjects they were teaching.

Both schools have twelve months to come into SACS compliance.

Tags: Probation, accreditation, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Paine College, warning, Brewton Parker College, Belle, Wheelan